IRAQ WAR APPROPRIATIONS VOTE POSTPONED A WEEK”

The House this week delayed a vote on legislation providing more than $160 billion in new money for the administration’s failed war strategy in Iraq.

BURMA: THE CRISIS AFTER THE DISASTER
PAULSON IS WRONG; CRISIS WILL DEEPEN
HUMAN RIGHTS PROTESTERS AT GOOGLE MEETING

BURMA: THE HORROR

Two from the NY Times:

Myanmar’s Biggest City Still Paralyzed After 5 Days

A Times reporter in Yangon found that basic utilities have yet to be restored and that streets were choked with fallen trees, showing how difficult recovery from the cyclone could be.

U.N. Aid Official Criticizes Junta

The United Nations relief began arriving after an excruciating delay during which the junta resisted offers of large-scale help.

Now, a closer look from a blogger via Globalvoices online:

Writes Mong Palatino:

First, an update on the situation in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis hit the country a few days ago. The death toll continues to rise. The official report on the number of casualties is way below international estimates. The government is still placing the number of dead people around 23,000 while international aid groups believe the figure could now reach 100,000.
Golden Colour Revolution hints the death toll could be worse:

“According to an undisclosed interview with one government official, death toll is reaching 600,000 so far and 100,000 still missing. According to his figure, 180,000 were killed in Lutbutta township alone. 90,000 in Phyar Pone Township; 80,000 in Bogalay Township; 50,000 each in KywanGanKone, DayDaYae and MawKyane Township.Authorities. Army and its thugs are throwing away dead bodies to the nearby river. Even in Ye Way Cemetery in Yangon City, dead bodies are cremated in batch without proper identification. Emphasizing to Phyar Pone Township, authority declared an Emergency Act.”

Bangkok Dazed received an e-mail from an expat friend living in Yangon, Myanmar. Below is a short description of how people in the residential city are coping with the situation:

“In our house we were trapped when tress around the house fell over after 11 hours of strong winds at 200-240 knots. The mess is terrible everywhere, with all electricity down and no water for days. Our home/office phone lines are down including all power lines. I am here today at the internet café. This area on Mahabandoola Street is open again in downtown Yangon, as they had underground wiring and cables. All the rest of us who live in residential areas and in the city are left with no power. We are looking at 3 to 6 months, or maybe 1 year to get power again! To add more stress, all food and water has gone up 3 times the price. As each day goes by, the price of generators go up; we paid $2,000 for a generator that is usually priced at $900 to $1,200. So it’s really bad. All of us are unhurt, but we are still coping with this situation.”

Now, let’s discuss the status of the relief work in Myanmar. The ruling Junta is still restricting the movement of international relief groups. Soe Moe enumerates the services and goods needed by Myanmar today:

“It’s been 6 days since the cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar and the situation is getting worse day by day due to the decomposed animals and human lying around the effected areas. Recent days, we had witnessed the generosity of the world as the humanitarian aid in millions of dollars. But it is very sad to find out that Burmese government is hesitating to grant visa to UN aid workers and NGOs in the name of politics. It is not the time for politics during the time of humanitarian crisis. And it is very sad to hear on news that the western nations are willing to provide the aid needing by the cyclone Nargis victims while Burmese government is refusing to accept them.
“Today first UN aid plane has landed in Yangon International Airport after 2 days delay due to the visa issues. And more planes are waiting permission from Burmese government to land in Yangon. Italy, Thai, India and Indonesia aid planes had been allowed to land in Yangon. We have seen the death toll increasing dramatically over the days.

“What we desperately need is experience aid works and rescue units to help the survivors, to dispose the dead bodies properly and to control the deadly diseases. We need helicopters to go to the most remote areas where the aid is greatly needed. In Burmese air force, we have limited numbers of helicopters and they won’t be able to help those from remote areas. US military is offering aid mission. The US airbase in Thailand is ready to send its helicopters and ships to Burma for search and rescue mission. And again, Burmese generals are not going to accept the offer because they are Americans. This is not the time for like or dislike. This is the time to save as much people as we can.”

The blogger is also horrified to see the dumping of corpses in the rivers:

WAR CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON. The US and Iran? Georgia and Russia? And Lebanon vs Hezbollah:

Hezbollah: Lebanon has declared war on us:

“The decision is tantamount to a declaration of war … on the resistance and its weapons in the interest of America and Israel,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a news conference aired live on television Thursday.

IRAQ: The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq has been arrested, an Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman tells The Associated Press.

ISRAEL AT 60: JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted on Thursday that he accepted campaign donations from an American businessman but denied that they were bribes and said he would only resign if he were indicted.

PAULSON SAYS CRISIS DONE; DAS SAYS ITS JUST STARTING

Credit crisis over? Not likely

Short-term rallies and wishful thinking have buyers ready to pounce, but the end of the credit mess isn’t yet here. In the meantime, here’s some speculation on bank stocks.

By Jon Markman

The major stock indexes blasted to two-month highs last week in defiance of wretched news on the economy, one of those reverso-world moves that the market gods use to keep the public wrong-footed. It seems negative sentiment is so pronounced right now that every time the news is one lumen brighter than total blackness, buyers emerge from their foxholes to nibble.

Yet Satyajit Das, an independent debt derivatives expert who for years has warned of an impending disaster in credit markets, doesn’t buy it. I caught him at his Sydney, Australia, office a few days after he emerged from a three-month back country trek, and he leapt at the chance to scoff at U.S. bank presidents’ vows that the worst of the credit crisis is over.

Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, in a voice dripping with Aussie irony, he quipped, “This is not the end or even the beginning of the end, though it may be the end of the beginning.”

FELDSTEIN FUMING WITH PHONY OPTIMISTS OF RECOVERY

Martin Feldstein, who as a Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Reagan and an advocate of Social Security reform, has been a surprisingly open critic of the Fed’s and Bush Administration’s responses to our current economic woes. Feldstein has been regularly writing op eds opposed to some of the viewpoints and actions of those in the driver’s seat. For instance, last month he wrote in the Wall Street Journal against further rate cuts, arguing they’d do little to stimulate growth but would be effective fuel for inflation. Feldstein, who now chairs the National Bureau of Economic Research, has said that the economy started into recession around the start of the year and expects it to last longer than the normal slowdown, a view which no doubt endears him to the officialdom in DC.

Today, in a comment in the Financial Times, “Misleading Growth Statistics Give False Comfort” (and a pointed contrast to Edward Lazear’s whopper, that the ‘data are clear” that the US is still in growth mode), Feldstein goes through the stats in more granular detail to demonstrate that the downturn is in progress (and gives a useful side lesson in how certain figures are derived).

He also urges more aggressive action and suggests an elegant-sounding solution: let borrowers refinance out of their mortgages into lower-interest, secured, but full recourse loans. The problem with this idea is that in most states, only purchase money mortgages are non-recourse. Refis (and half the subprimes were cash-out refis) are recourse loans. They are de facto non recourse because the costs of going after deadbeats are high (or higher) than recoveries, so pursing them isn’t a very attractive economic proposition. Making new loans full recourse thus is an illusory improvement.

IS IT TIME FOR THE BIG WALK-AWAY

The Big Walk Away is coming.

It’s only a matter of time before the Big Walk Away becomes even bigger. That’s right, when you get right down to it, why does anyone have to meet their obligations? Just take the Big Walk Away. Why should homeowners try to make payments on over valued property? Just walk away and all your troubles will be over.

In fact your Government is telling you not to worry, Uncle Sam will bail you out. Your government is bailing out huge corporate institutions at time when the Federal government can’t meet its obligations. So why not walk? You have nothing to lose. If leveraged buyouts were rewarded and are now backstopped by your tax dollars, then why not get some of your tax money back?
Now thousands of individuals are taking the Big Walk Away. But wait, is it limited to just the consumer? No. Every institution will take the Big Walk Away - everything from Corporations to Cities to States.

THE SCARIEST NEWS SO FAR–PENSIONS OF 44 MILLION WORKERS MAY BE GONE VERY SOON

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/TheYearsScariestInvestingNews.aspx?GT1=33002&ref=patrick.net

“The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the government agency that protects the pensions of 44 million workers in case their employers can’t (or won’t) pay promised benefits, has announced that to avoid going bust it will double the percentage of its portfolio — to 45% — that it puts into stocks. An additional 10% will go into alternative investments, including hedge funds.

In other words, facing a $14 billion deficit and even larger projected shortfalls, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., or PBGC, decided not to save (by raising premiums) or to live within its means (by cutting benefits) but to gamble in the financial markets by taking on more risk. The PBGC was so proud of its new strategy that it announced it on Presidents Day, when the U.S. financial markets were closed and almost no one was paying attention.”

Mike Kisselstein writes about The Nexus of Systemic Excess

Global economies have been rocked by interrelated sector meltdowns. Home prices continue to fall, home building remains down, foreclosures and home vacancies are up. What began in the residential real estate sector has spread to the financial, commercial real estate, municipal bond and retail sectors. Unemployment has begun to inch up as consumers draw on credit cards and 401Ks to cover income shortfalls. The days of cheap and easy credit appear to be over for the foreseeable future. Clearly we are in the process of unwinding the perfect storm of systemic excesses which have permeated the global economy.

It’s been called the sub prime mess, a credit crisis and a housing bubble. It’s introduced Americans to terms like mark to market, mark to model, kitchen sink quarter, jingle mail, write downs, Alt A, SIVs and LBOs. Where is the center of this universe? It’s at the corner of a rust belt dream and systemic excess at a former toxic waste dump on the shore of America’s most polluted lake directly adjacent to the municipal sewage treatment plant in Syracuse, NY. And this nexus has been prophetically named, DestiNY USA =…

FIGURES LIE, LIARS FIGURE

From the Financial Times:

Prepositions matter. The recent government report that US gross domestic product increased 0.6 per cent in the first quarter was very misleading. It implied that economic activity was rising in January, February and March. But the increase actually refers to the rise from the average level in the fourth quarter of 2007 to the average level in the first quarter. Monthly data since January indicate that economic activity and GDP have been declining since the start of this year.

Private sector payroll employment peaked last November and has fallen five months in a row, shedding more than 300,000 jobs. Industrial production was lower in March than in December and January. Real personal income net of taxes and transfers is also lower than in January. Real retail sales have fallen since the start of the year. Private housing starts are down 13 per cent in just the two months since January and 36 per cent from a year ago.

Although the government does not provide monthly estimates of GDP, Macroeconomic Advisers…estimates real GDP based on the price level of the year 2000. Its most recent estimates (revised figures to be published this month) show that real GDP rose from an annual $11,649bn last October to $11,701bn in December and $11,777bn in January but fell to $11,686bn in March, a decline of about $100bn in two months. Although GDP declined during the first quarter, the average of the monthly figures in the first quarter ($11,711bn) is higher than the average of the monthly figures for the final quarter of 2007 ($11,675bn).

The misstatement that the economy expanded in the first quarter creates an inappropriately sanguine view of the months ahead and therefore reduces the prospect of strong action to prevent

the deep decline that may otherwise occur…

POLITICS

OTHER VIEWS ON INDIANA (by TexasDarlin at MyDD)

Why did Barack Obama lose the state of Indiana, a state his own campaign predicted he would win in February, a state he declared would be a “tie breaker,” a state in which 25% of the electorate lives in Obama’s hometown media market?… Clinton is the one who out-performed expectations [on Tuesday]. Clinton’s core base grew, and Obama did not cut into it. Obama lost ground in Indiana. A big Rezko-sized lot full of ground. A net 9-point loss from his own projections. Despite massive advertising expenditures and a hometown advantage with 25% of the electorate, Obama could not close the deal in Indiana.

Aha! It’s Rush Limbaugh’s Fault that Obama Lost Indiana! (by SusanUnPC at No Quarter)

Kerry, political genius — and Obama campaign manager David Pfouffe — have blamed Rush Limbaugh for Barack Obama’s failure to win Indiana last night, reports Politico.com’s Ben Smith. “Rush Limbaugh was tampering with the primary,” Kerry said “If it was not for Republicans taking Democratic ballots, he would have won,” he said of Obama… But what the two geniuses Pfouffe and Kerry do not realize is that Rush has given them a BIG boost towards victory! Pouty Poofy and Jawin’ John should NOT look this gift horse in the mouth!

TERROR DRILLS THIS MONTH

I ran a piece that warned of nationwide terror drills, The qualifications of the authors was questioned as was my credibility for running it. I then checked on line and could not find sources to verify what seemed like a very draconian, sweeping story. Score one for the critics but then this came in from CLG-Citizens for Limited Government in Florida

http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

Feds Practice Evacuation From D.C. to Test ‘Continuity of Government’ –In Big National Drill, Executive Branch ‘Runs’ Government From Outside D.C. as Mock Crises Mount

A national disaster exercise that began last week involves the evacuation of thousands of federal personnel from Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reported [Buried in the ‘Metro’ section, Page B08]. In National Exercise 2-08, which continues through Saturday, [Bush bin Laden’s] terrorists release a poisonous gas from a tanker in Washington state while Oregon authorities must handle the unintentional escape of nerve agent from the Umatilla Chemical Depot. Meanwhile, the capital region is faced with a terrorist threat and a major hurricane making its way up the East Coast. Over three days this week, the federal government is using cars and helicopters to move large numbers of employees to temporary sites in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. The drill is intended to test the ability to maintain “continuity of government” in the face of a crisis. This is among the largest such drills since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said. President [sic] George W. Bush was not expected to be among the evacuees, but some White House personnel would be sent out of town, said spokesman Scott Stanzel.

Cheney aide subpoenaed to testify to Congress 07 May 2008 U.S. Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney’s chief of staff was subpoenaed on Wednesday to testiLIE in a congressional probe of the administration’s treatment and possible torture of enemy combatants. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) issued the subpoena to David Addington a day after it was authorized by a House panel.

MEDIA

CONGRATS TO JASON LEOPOLD ON THE LAUNCH OF HIS NEW INVESTIGATIVE PUBLICATION: THE PUBLIC RECORD

News From Scotland: Harry Potter author wins privacy case

HARRY POTTER author JK Rowling today won a landmark privacy ruling in her battle to ban publication of covert long lens pictures taken of her son when he was 18 months old.
The Edinburgh author was unaware the photograph – which was taken in 2004 in a street in the Capital – was being taken and did not consent to it.

In a key finding, the Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, said: “If a child of parents who are not in the public eye could reasonably expect not to have photographs of him published in the media, so too should the child of a famous parent.”

The case was brought by the writer under her real name, Joanne Murray, with husband Dr Neil Murray on behalf of their son, David, who is now aged five.

BBC: PROTEST AT GOOGLE

Google - whose shares currently trade at almost $600 (£300), more than $100 above its level a year ago - is facing two shareholder motions at its annual general meeting on Thursday.
Both insist the company needs to do more to fight censorship and support human rights.

The top three executives at Google control about two-thirds of the voting shares, so neither motion will get a majority.

But that is not the point of the exercise, according to Amnesty International, which will be proposing the first motion at the meeting.

“A lot of shareholders vote and don’t attend the meeting but they may pay attention to what happens,” says Amy O’Meara, director of business and human rights at Amnesty International USA.

WATCH FOR THE NEW QUARTERLY DISPATCHES IN AMERICA

Beautifully designed. Book sized, timeless photos and textured reporting. Its all edited by one of my media heroes Mort Rosenblum, a long time Associated Press correspondent and International Herald Trib editor. He has been outspoken against the cutbacks and dumbing down of media as a critic. Now he turning to his first love, journalism, to show us how it should and could be done.

Check out their website: http://www.rethink-dispatches.com

AND SPEAKING OF READING—THE MOST OBJECTED TO BOOK IN AMERICA IS…

INDIA AT 60

Went to a luncheon at the Asia Society to hear Kamal Nath, the Minister or Commerce and Industry who was boostering India’s dynamic economy. Among his points was that Indian businesses are actually creating more jobs in the US than are being outsourced to India….He also said, in response to my question that there were virtually NO subprime write downs there because India’s banking system is sounder than ours. He was critical of the subsidies US farmers receive….

Impressive…..

I am in Boston Friday and then heading to Berlin for an event with the Public Interest Registry, the company that oversees all the .org registrations on the web like ours. My blogging might be jet lagged next week.

Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org

DEATH TOLL RISES IN BURMA
WHY SO MUCH APATHY ON THE WAR?
NEW TALK ON “DREAM” OBAMA-CLINTON TICKET

Will the Burma tragedy bring world pressure on the regime to step down? Will the World Stand By?

BURMA—THE TRAGEDY ESCALATES

Yesterday: YANGON, Myanmar - Bodies floated in flood waters and survivors tried to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails, while the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar said Wednesday that the toll from the cyclone and its aftermath may reach 100,000.

BURMA REFUGEES DYING: WILL THE AID GET THERE TOO LATE?

FRENCH NEWS AGENCY AFP: LABUTTA, Myanmar (AFP) - Thousands of shell-shocked survivors of the Myanmar cyclone emerged Wednesday, desperate for food and water after trekking for days through flood waters littered with the bodies of the dead.

An AFP reporter who reached the remote southern delta hardest hit by the storm, which left more than 60,000 dead or missing, said there was virtually no food or fresh water in this ruined town blanketed by the stench of death.

The grim accounts of survivors came as the United Nations said the country’s reclusive military rulers, under pressure to let in foreign aid workers, had approved an emergency flight five days after the tragedy.

WHAT NOW IN THE BIG RACE: SHH–MCCAIN HARD AT WORK:

YAHOO: In the two weeks since Senator Obama’s loss in Pennsylvania, Senator McCain has visited the struggling steel town of Youngstown, Ohio, to promote programs to retrain workers. He has gone to Allentown, Pa., to push a gas-tax holiday and argue that the Democrats’ healthcare plans gave too much power to the government. And in Appalachian Kentucky, he has pledged to bring new jobs and technology to rural America.

THE DREAM TICKET: IS IT A DREAM?

AP reported Wednesday: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Now that Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes appear to be fading, some Democrats are talking about the possibility of Barack Obama taking Clinton on as his vice presidential running mate.

SOME REACTIONS:

Robert Creamer: After his loss in Pennsylvania, Obama faced gale force political winds. The media had turned. Hillary was on the attack. Rev. Wright threw himself into the center of the debate. But in spite of it all, he won an overwhelming victory in the tenth largest state. All that counts now is how many delegates each remaining primary contributes to achieving Barack’s magic number — the 2025 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination. Barack will most likely lose West Virginia and Kentucky, but each one will contribute more delegates to the final number he needs. Click here to read more.

Ian Welsh: Obama’s Clinton Dilemma

To be crass and point out the unpalatable truth, there isn’t a lot in it for Hillary to back Obama in a more than pro-forma “going through the motions” fashion.

ROSS DOUTHAT—THE ATLANTIC

So while the design of the system technically allows superdelegates to do what they think is best for the party (or for themselves and their constituents), the realities of life in a mass democracy make “overturning” even a narrow margin in votes and delegates well-nigh unthinkable. Which is why Hillary needed a chance at some sort of popular-vote lead (with Florida thrown in, if nothing else) to justify continuing her campaign. And it’s why, after last night’s results extinguished even that thin hope, her campaign is finally finished, whether she’s ready to admit it or not.

WHY THE APATHY ABOUT THE WAR?

In an article in London’s Guardian on 1968 Tqriq Ali who organized many protests against the Vietnam War back in the l960’s asks “ “Where has all the rage gone?” A newspaper in Pittsburgh catalogues the frustration of anti-Iraq war protesters with seeming public indifference.

“After $500 billion in spending and 4,000 military deaths, this was supposed to be an election year dominated by the war.

Both Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, support a withdrawal, while Sen. John McCain, a Republican, argues that the U.S. risks losing Iraq to terrorist groups and Iranian influence if troops leave before the country is stable.

In Washington, D.C., Congress is preparing to consider President Bush’s latest emergency funding package for the fighting, with a price tag of $108 billion.

But a worsening economy has easily overtaken Iraq as the top concern for voters, according to a New York Times/CBS poll released last week. Only 17 percent of respondents picked the war as the “one issue” they’d like to hear the candidates discuss more.

Americans still have strong feelings about the conflict: 62 percent want the next president to pull out of Iraq within a year or two of taking office, the poll said. Yet war opponents and supporters are having trouble getting the public’s — and the media’s — attention.”

Why?

Part of the problem is our media of course which flits from issue to issue and when it only pays attention to politics, pushing everything else off to the side.

The absence of the draft and the lack of follow up on returning veterans also pushes the war out of sight and out of mind.

Its much easier to sit in your living room as a passive observer/voyeur and watch the see-sawing results coming in from Indiana—to be passive couch potato with the world mediated by TV images in our home entertainment centers than become actively engaged in trying to stop a slaughter. Signing on line petitions or sending a check to MoveOn seems to have replaced oppositional activism,

Do you know what’s going on? Do you know how horrific it is? Like, did you know this: Post-War Suicides May Exceed Combat Deaths, U.S. Says

May 5 (Bloomberg) — The number of suicides among
veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the
combat death toll because of inadequate mental health
care, the U.S. government’s top psychiatric researcher
said.

Community mental health centers, hobbled by financial
limits, haven’t provided enough scientifically sound
care, especially in rural areas, said Thomas Insel,
director of the National Institute of Mental Health in
Bethesda, Maryland. He briefed reporters today at the
American Psychiatric Association.”

ONE REASON MOST OF US DON’T KNOW

RELATED NEWS: A March survey from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press discovered that just 28 percent of Americans knew the approximate number of U.S. deaths in the war.

“Obviously, I wish that the American people were more engaged in understanding what’s at stake in Iraq,” said Pete Hegseth, who served there with the 101st Airborne Division and is now executive director of Vets for Freedom. “I think it’s unfortunate that here on the homefront we’re not interested in what’s going on overseas.”

A year ago, the situation was very different. In the face of growing public angst, President Bush committed nearly 30,000 additional troops to the war. News coverage was then absorbed by a showdown between the new congressional Democratic majority and the president over war funding.

The media’s focus on the war then began a steady decline. In February, only 3 percent of print, television and online coverage was dedicated to Iraq, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, or PEJ, a Washington-based organization. That’s down from 22 percent a year before.

SO NOW WHAT? BUSH SEEKS MORE MONEY FOR IRAQ

Local Cost of War Breakdowns Based on President’s New Funding Request

As Congress considers President Bush’s request for another $178 billion in total war funding for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2008 and the first part of Fiscal Year 2009, the National Priorities Project (NPP) released today a state-level table and breakdowns of Iraq war spending costs by state, congressional district, county and town, showing the local cost of the additional request and what that amount of money could buy in domestic services for each locality instead.

Of the $178 billion war spending request, $135 billion is dedicated to the Iraq War, with close to $84 billion allocated for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2008 and almost $52 billion allocated for the start of Fiscal Year 2009.

NPP’s state-level table shows the cost of the Iraq War thus far to each state, the cost to each state of the pending funding request and what that amount could buy each state in health care, school teachers and affordable housing. NPP’s “trade-offs” page offers similar breakdowns by congressional district, county, town and state as well.

SURPRISE: BUSH EMAILS MISSING

Matt Renner | Bush Iraq Emails Not Recoverable

Truthout’s Matt Renner reports: “A late-night court filing by the White House on Monday revealed that official administration emails about the run up to the invasion of Iraq and the initial occupation may never be recovered.”

The Administration speaks with forked tongue. On the one hand we have the Treasury Department now saying the crisis is over—but then the head of the Fed in Kansas City says interest rates may go UP if inflation keeps going up:

FIRST:THE FINANCIAL TIMES ON PAULSON

The credit crisis is entering its later stages, but the process of deleveraging in the financial system still has further to go, according to Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary. “I am encouraged. I am feeling better about the markets,” he told the Financial Times, adding: “In terms of the capital markets, I believe we are closer to the end than the beginning.” Mr Paulson said he took “some comfort and satisfaction” from the amount of capital that was coming into the banking system, both in the form of equity infusions into banks and private capital deployed to purchase assets such as leveraged loans. “There have been plenty of examples through history of where astute investors have come in and taken advantage of distress in the market to make good profits,” he said. But he said it was taking time for markets to normalise, partly because of the complexity of some of the credit instruments involved, but also “because of the increase of leverage in the system”.

‘The Worst Is Behind Us’: Paulson Joins Street Luminaries, Declares Victory (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?)

With Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Merrill’s John Thain chiming in, there’s now near unanimity of opinion on Wall Street: The worst of the credit crisis is over.
Such comments seem outrageous given the latest batch of scary headlines from UBS, Fannie Mae, Legg Mason, Lazard, et al. But hope springs eternal on Wall Street, and the reality is the crisis in the debt markets has eased since JPMorgan’s Fed-engineered purchase of Bear Stearns, which Paulson called “an inflection point.” (Critics have used similar terms, but with a far different meaning.)

Meanwhile, even Henry “Mr. Sunshine” Blodget is starting to come around to the idea that the housing market may be hitting bottom, thanks to an op-ed by Cyril Moulle-Berteaux, managing partner of Traxis Partners, in The Wall Street Journal.

SEE VIDEO:

INTEREST RATES COULD RISE AS INFLATION SKYROCKETS

May 7 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig said “serious'’ inflation pressures may compel the central bank to increase interest rates. The dollar rose against the euro.

“There is a significant risk that higher inflation will become embedded in the economy and require significant monetary policy tightening to reduce it,'’ Hoenig said yesterday in the prepared text of a speech in Denver. Consumers are gaining an “inflation psychology to an extent that I have not seen since the 1970s and early 1980s,'’ he said.

Hoenig’s warning supports speculation among investors that the central bank has finished its series of rate cuts after seven reductions since September. Policy makers last month lowered the benchmark by a quarter point and signaled they are ready for a pause, omitting a previous reference to “downside'’ risks to economic growth.

USA TODAY: Witnesses: Mortgage Lenders Abusing Court System

Mortgage lenders are abusing the bankruptcy court system by pursuing unjustified foreclosures against struggling homeowners, piling on questionable fees and misstating the amounts owed, witnesses alleged at a congressional hearing on Tuesday.The result is a systemic breakdown that increases foreclosures, raises the number of families losing their homes and threatens the integrity of the legal system, the witnesses told the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts.Robin Atchley, a letter carrier from Georgia, said Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest home lender, twice asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to foreclose on her home in 2006, even though “we were current on our mortgage payments.”

Countrywide’s Woes Add Doubt on Deal

Four months after Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America, agreed to buy the mortgage lender Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion, Wall Street is buzzing with speculation that he might reduce his offer for the troubled company or perhaps even walk away from the deal.The rout, one of the biggest one-day declines for the company since Lewis announced his blockbuster deal in January, was touched off by an analyst report urging Bank of America to abandon the acquisition because of growing problems at Countrywide, the largest home lender in the United States.

A GLOBAL MONETARY CRISIS IS LIKELY TO OCCUR BEFORE THE NOVEMBER ELECTION

INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN PHILLIPS: BAD MONEY

PETER MILLER: Guess What? Predatory Lending Is Not A Crime

Speaking before big-shot investors on Wall Street last week, assistant Treasury secretary Anthony Ryan said the marketplace needs to be protected against financial predators.

“While predation is the law of the jungle in nature, as civilized society, we need to have laws in place to protect investors and consumers,” Ryan told the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).

“Market integrity is critical for a sound and robust market,” he continued. “Market participants must know the playing field is level and the rules are fair. There is a real benefit to the existence and enforcement of broad anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authorities. Predatory lenders, rumor mongers, market manipulators, insider traders and others who seek to gain an unfair advantage must be identified and prosecuted.”

This is great stuff and you can readily agree with Ryan’s sentiments, but no predatory lender will ever be persecuted by the federal government. The reason? Predatory lending is not a federal crime.

Don’t believe it? Just take a look at the annual statistics for financial crimes. Not a single case of predatory lending.

In our system mortgage fraud — such as deliberately and materially inflating income or assets on a loan application — is a crime. But if a borrower qualifies for an FHA mortgage at 6 percent and is sold a subprime loan at 8 percent, the law says that’s not a crime and that’s not predatory lending. That’s just good business for a lender — though perhaps not so good for the borrower who now has far higher monthly costs and is much more likely to lose his home to foreclosure and bankruptcy and thus lower the value of neighborhood houses.

Our Treasury official says “it is important that regulators have broad authority to investigate and prosecute these actions. These measures instill confidence in market participants that the market is operating in a fair and transparent fashion where rules matter.”

GUESS WHAT?: IT SHOULD BE–FORECLOSURES RISE IN MASSACHUSETTS

The first three months of 2008 saw another record number of foreclosures in Massachusetts, according to the latest statistics.

The state saw 9,114 new properties enter foreclosures, up almost 38 percent over a year ago and the third record-breaking quarter in a row, according to data provider ForeclosuresMass.com.

More than three quarters of the state’s 351 communities saw foreclosure rates increase in the past year, with 73 municipalities seeing at least a 75 percent increase in filings.

“Despite all of the attention being given to the foreclosure issue, nothing has changed. In fact, things have gotten worse,” said Jeremy Shapiro, president and co-founder of ForeclosuresMass.com, in a statement

Overall, 32,349 Massachusetts homeowners were at risk for foreclosure in the past 12 months, a statewide increase of 44.78 percent.

AL SHARPTON ARRESTED IN PROTEST AGAINST COURT DECISION IN COP CASE

NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton was arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday as he and hundreds of demonstrators blocked traffic to protest the acquittal of three detectives in the 50-bullet shooting of an unarmed black man on his wedding day.

FBI Raids Special Counsel

mcclatchydc.com — FBI agents searched the home and office of U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch, seizing documents and computers as part of an investigation into whether he obstructed an inquiry into allegations of his own misconduct. Agents are looking into whether Bloch deleted his agency’s computer files to hinder an outside investigation of his treatment of employees, the officials said. Bloch, appointed in 2004, investigates allegations of retaliation and ethics violations by federal employees.

THE BASHING MACHINE AT FOX NEWS SOROS BAITS A SCHECTER

My kind of name sake Clif Schecter (he spells his name without two Hs) and author of the new book “The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn’t” recounts a recent media experience.

Fox News personality John Gibson said I was one—which means, of course, it is true. On his radio show the other day, he opined that because I once worked at Brave New Films (which may get some George Soros money) and the publisher of my new book, The Real McCain, is a friend of Soros’, well then case closed. I am on Soros’ payroll, which is why one of the two cars my wife and I drive is a Subaru with 125,000 miles on it.

But this is a great anecdote to point out a larger virus that infects conservatism, and has for a long time now: Paranoia. For that, Soros is perfect. Jewish, of foreign birth, living in New York and a “financier,” he is a fourfer!

If only he were gay too.

MILITARY UPRISING? Proposed Ban on “Porn” Angers Soldiers

Should congress ban the sale of Playboy and Penthouse at U.S. military installations? Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga) thinks this is a big enough problem that he needed to introduce legislation to promote a ban on such men’s magazines as “porn”. Soldiers aren’t too happy about it…

it’s become a big issue within the military:

GRAFENWOHR, Germany — Legislation that would restrict the sale of certain men’s magazines on U.S. military bases around the world would be bad for morale, according to soldiers at Grafenwöhr.

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., has introduced legislation that would close a loophole in the current law that allows the sale of some sexually explicit material on military bases by lowering the threshold required to deem material “sexually explicit.”

A Department of Defense committee that reviews materials sold on bases ruled last year that magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse are not pornographic. But Broun’s Military Honor and Decency Act includes language that could make those magazines eligible for the ban…

…Broun, a Marine veteran, told Newsweek recently that the magazines sold in military exchanges are partly responsible for a rise in sexual assaults in the military and other problems…

MEDIA-PROGRESS REPORT: Hate Radio’s Bigotry Against Hispanics

On Monday, hate radio king Rush Limbaugh appeared on Fox News for five minutes to discuss the presidential race and managed to make an offensive comment. Limbaugh called Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), who is Hispanic, a “shoe shine guy.” Yesterday, Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, blasted Limbaugh for uttering “the same kind of nasty, bigoted, racist type comment that has become so prevalent in today’s society, as practiced by Lou Dobbs, as practiced by [Sean] Hannity, [Bill] O’Reilly, [Michael] Savage.” Racial slurs, particularly fueled against Hispanics, has found a home on right-wing radio, which claims 91 percent of radio airwaves. The nation’s leading Hispanic advocacy group, National Council of La Raza, launched a campaign earlier this year decrying right-wing radio for its “rhetoric that demonizes immigrants and Hispanic Americans.”

“Talk like Savage’s, or Limbaugh’s or O’Reilly’s, has become routine, even systematic, and certainly a big business. According to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, the top five radio station owners that control 45 powerful, 50,000-watt or more radio stations broadcast 310 hours of nationally syndicated right-wing talk. But they broadcast only a total of five hours of countervailing talk,” Salon reported. Yet these talkers are rarely held to account: For example, neither ABC, Time, nor Politico mentioned the offensive remarks when reporting on Limbaugh’s TV commentary this week. Progressive radio host Mario Solis-Marich wrote Tuesday, “As a member of the largest minority ethnic group and a member of the media, I am continually puzzled and outraged by the idea that anyone can say anything about Latinos without fearing any consequence.”

SLASHING ANOTHER NEWSPAPER

Just a year ago, when the Tampa Tribune announced it was axing 70 jobs, 10 from the newsroom, it came as no big surprise. Those cuts were pretty much in line with what other papers had been announcing in response to ongoing declines in circulation and ad revenue.

What a difference a year makes.

New cuts are in store for the Tribune, and they’re a lot harsher.

Parent Media General now plans to chop fully half of the people at its Tampa operations, which include the paper but also a TV station, among other media properties.

In all, 650 or so of some 1,300 employees stand to see their jobs disappear. Media General, which also owns the Richmond Times-Dispatch, is blaming the recession for steep losses.

Welcome to what could be a whole new era of downsizing and turmoil in the American newspaper industry.”

FCC SAYS GOSSIP SHOW IS TO BE CONSIDERED REAL NEWS

Free Press: The FCC just ruled that the celebrity gossip show “TMZ” qualifies as a “bona fide newscast” — making it even easier for Big Media companies to replace real journalism with cheap junk news.

Activists Respond: Stop the giveaway at StopBigMedia.com

ONE NATION UNDER TELEVISION

NEWSDAY: TVB STUDY FINDS TV IS AMERICA’S TOP MEDIUM

A new Nielsen survey says television continues to dominate as the most influential and authoritative medium.

Television continues to dominate the media usage habits of Americans, topping the Internet, magazines, newspapers, and radio on a number of important measures, according to new results of a Nielsen Media Research survey commissioned by TVB.
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The results mirror the findings of both Hearst-Argyle’s Magid study, released earlier this year, and Fox’s Marketing Evolution study, which is now being circulated among agencies.

TVB’s survey—last conducted in 2006—polled 1,246 adults over a three-week period in January 2008.

The survey can be parsed by key age demos as well as by household income, education, and occupation. Honing in on the adults 25-54 demographic, the survey reveals:

A remarkably high percentage ofthe demo’s total daily media hours (53%) are spent with television (morethan all the other media combined).

Adults 25-54 continue to spend significantly more time with television than with other media (222.7 minutes in the previous 24 hours versus 106.5 minutes for radio, 99.7 minutes for the Internet, 22.1 minutes for newspaper, and 15.1 minutes for magazines).

Television reaches more adults25-54 each day than any other medium. Of those polled, 90.0% reported watching television in the previous 24 hours as opposed to 80.0% for radio, 72.1% for the Internet, 58.9% for newspapers, and 48.3% for magazines.

Adults 25-54 say television advertising is the most influential (81.4% for television, 6.5% for the Internet, 5.8% for newspaper, 3.9% for radio, and 2.3% for magazines).

When asked to cite which medium’s advertising was the most persuasive, 69.9% named television rather than 9.5% for newspapers, 7.5% for radio, 8.1% for magazines, and5.1% for the Internet.

Asked where they are most likely to learn about products or brands they might like to try or buy,55.0% said television, 18.7% said the Internet, 14.6% said magazines, 7.1%said newspapers, and 4.5% said radio.

FROM THE REVIEW OF BARBARA WALTERS BOOK IN THE NY OBSERVER

Journalists are, by necessity, chameleons, or, as Janet Malcolm famously put it, “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.”

Barbara Walters, the indefatigable interviewer of everyone from Anwar Sadat to Monica Lewinsky and the Menendez brothers, would likely quibble with Ms. Malcolm’s characterization of journalists, and indeed, after reading her autobiography, Audition, one gets the sense that if Ms. Walters ever noticed that she was, perhaps, manipulating her subjects, that she managed to successfully tamp down any feelings of cognitive dissonance….

AN EXCHANGE WITH A READER

There are many readers who seem to believe that I hate Hillary. I don’t, but given the passions among Democrats, so many people are on a short fuse, unwilling to hear other voices. Dee Maine wrote this to me this morning:

What do you mean “take that Hillary”? What has she done to all of the liberal bloggers that they hate her so much? You are about the last one I read and now I will have to stop reading you. All she has done is work and fight very hard. I hope you remember how you treated her when all of Obama’s garbage comes out in the fall. I can’t believe adults with a lot of experience falling for empty words from an empty suit. We are not flower children any more. Anyone who believes he is a different type of politician should have followed his statements on Reverend Wright. He initially denied that he heard him say any of these things. His first instinct was to lie. What is wrong with you?”

I wrote her back but didn’t think she would hear me

Look, Hillary is my Senator. I voted for her twice. I may again. I don’t endorse candidates. I mostly write about the media coverage

Please, that comment was an aside because I think their putting women up front tactic in North Carolina was a way of one up-ing Hillary, so it was a critical commentary, not a slam, but you seem so partisan and righteous on this that you scold me for it and couldn’t see that

Dee…..you are entitled to your opinion…if you follow my work at all, you know it is not partisan..i have run critiques of Obama

Why do you “have to stop reading” –because of that one comment. Come on……You misunderstood it, and I feel you are lashing out at me because of frustration about whats happening….Do we only want to hear our own voices in an echo chamber.”

But, then, to my delight and surprise Dee wrote again:

Sorry. You are right. It is just making me very sad when I started this campaign very excited about both candidates. I identify very much with Hillary and almost regard criticism of her as personal. I think I will get over it.

JANET W writes

I am wondering if you have sent a copy of your articles to every AG in the United States and see who would like to make their political bones on this issue? If they collectively weighed in on it, it wouldn’t be swept away by the bought-offs in Congress.

GEO GELLER WRITES, OR IS IT RANTS

I was just reading something that a journalist said which made me think- they said journalism will have all sorts of tools that will change how we report things at the speed of light - and then he said journalism has always been one way and now its a. Conversation - well I was thinking just a few months ago the buzz words were social media and conversation and now that is old buzz and we know that new has been replaced along time ago by “next” but the question is

Maybe we need to change from speed of light to the speed of a dream :-)

So how do you keep ahead of the game when everything is a moving at speed of light - when next is already history and tomorrows news is arleady late and where do we go from here when our collective memory and ADD is lost in a revolving door and tomorrow is not only passe but has past us by - and we are moving at the speed of light while standing still - maybe we are at the event horizon. And don’t know it or swallowed up in a black hole of the internet and we have all become one nation, one world, and everybody knows it but our fearful, fearless leaders, the gate keepers keep holding us back and down and holding on to the past where all they care about is staying in power and on top of their top down management position at any and all
cost - we need a new dream.”

RUSSELL RITELL INVITES ALL OF US TO HIS MEDIA CHURCH

Based on your history, research and publications I am forwarding you a link to my website which includes information on my art installation.

The project is titled, “The Media Church”, it is multimedia installation based on evidence I have found, (in my graduate research), and ideas I have developed as a media insider. This show focuses on the ways in which television and printed news media affect social values as compared to a religion.

For a more detailed description and a virtual tour please visit www.themediachurch.com

Hope to see you at the show.

MONSTER SPEAKS:

AMSTETTEN, Austria (AFP) - An Austrian accused of keeping his daughter as a sex slave for 24 years insisted Wednesday he is “no monster”, as residents of his town staged a rally in support of the victims

CULTURE NOTE:

My cousin David Schechter with whom I worked on as a bit player in Steve Buscemi’s film INTERVIEW for which he wrote the screenplay has a vibrant new play that he’s directing. A publication about Broadway published in Baltimore writes about it. I went Wednesday night.

Its about Shlomo Carlebach, once known as the hippie Rabbi in the l960’s, for playing his own version of rock and roll, and running a peace synagogue. The Show–a musical–was lots of fun resonating with an enthusistic audience. It traced Shlomo’s journey from a refugee from Nazi persecution to a Torah scholar, to a Chasidic Jew to an apostle of Peace and Love playing with Nina Simone. The music is joyful. The dancing is great. I jokingly told a friend it could be called EAST RIVER DANCE!

SHLOMO The New Musical about the life and music of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach now playing at the The Museum of Jewish Heritage (36 Battery Place) through Friday May 9th, has announced a return engagement this summer. Due to popular demand, the musical will return to The Museum for another three-week engagement August 12th -31st.

In other news, the company of the hit musical will take to the recording studio on May 11th to lay down tracks for the show’s cast recording to be released this summer.

SHLOMO The New Musical features a company of Broadway veterans including two-time Tony Award nominee Josie de Guzman (West Side Story, Guys & Dolls), Thursday Farrar (Aida), Paul Jackel (The Secret Garden), James Judy (Into the Woods), Aaron Kaburick (Annie), Jillian Louis, Brooke Moriber (Follies, The Wild Party), Gary Patent, David Reiser (Good Vibrations), Luke Rosen, David Rossmer (Fiddler on the Roof, Titanic), Daniel Rudin (Fiddler on the Roof), Talya Smilowitz, Noah Solomon and Lauren Weisman.

The show did go on a bit so I am late in blogging and have to leave you here.

Thanks to those who write. Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org